Thursday, March 13, 2008

Things that make this dolphin smile.....

This true story I read in today's Mumbai Mirror......renews my faith and implicit belief in the generosity of nature.

Wellington: A dolphin swam up to two distressed whales that appeared headed for death in a beach stranding in New Zealand and guided them to safety, witnesses said on Wednesday.

The actions of the bottlenose dolphin — named Moko by residents who said it spends much of its time swimming playfully with humans at the beach — amazed would-be rescuers and an expert who said they were evidence of the species’ friendly nature.

The two pygmy sperm whales, a mother and her calf, were found stranded on Mahia Beach, northeast Wellington, on Monday morning, said Conservation Department worker Malcolm Smith. Rescuers worked for more than one hour to get the whales back into the water, only to see them strand themselves four times on a sandbar slightly out to sea. It looked likely the whales would have to be euthanised to prevent them suffering a prolonged death, Smith said.

Then along came Moko, who approached the whales and led them 200 meters along the beach and through a channel out to the open sea.

“Moko just came flying through the water and pushed in between us and the whales,” Juanita Symes, another rescuer, told The Associated Press. “She got them to head toward the hill, where the channel is. It was an amazing experience. The best day of my life.”

2 comments:

meraj said...

Lovely! Nature is so beautiful, always. Saw a great movie yesterday in the just concluded MAMI festival on the beauties of nature and human being's oneness with it. Its a 2007 Japanese movie called, 'The Mourning Forest'...visually and philosophically stunning. A must watch for you.

Hope you are in this side of the globe, around 10th of May, 2008...are you?

meraj said...

yeah it is 10th of May for a small party. although the court affair is on 1st of May.

its mighty sad that you wont be around. when are you leaving? perhaps, we can do something around that. a dinner somewhere?

cheers!
m